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The Statue of Liberty History continued...
During the American Revolution, the colonies that would become the United States received a great deal of help from the people of France. The French provided money, weapons, ships and men to the American colonies. Some Frenchmen, like Marquis de Lafayette, close friend to George Washington, even became high-ranking officers in the American army. The alliance turned out to be a friendship that neither side would forget.
Statue of Liberty history began in 1865. Several French intellectuals were sitting at a dinner party in France discussing their opposition to the oppressive regime of Napoleon III. The conversation turned toward the group's admiration for America. They admired how the country had established a democratic government and abolished slavery at the end of the Civil War. The party was hosted by Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye. Laboulaye was a scholar, jurist, abolitionist and a leader of the “liberals,” the political group dedicated to establishing a French republican government modeled on the American Constitution. Laboulaye noted that there was genuine sympathy between the two nations. He called the two nations “the two sisters”. Laboulaye then suggested the construction of a joint monument between the French and Americans which would celebrate the idea of liberty. Laboulaye thought it would be great to give the United States a lasting memorial to show that the French government was also dedicated to the idea of human liberty.
In 1871, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor and friend of Laboulaye, was commissioned to design the monument. Years earlier, Bartholdi had wanted to erect a statue at the mouth of what is now the Suez Canal in Egypt. He wanted the statue to be in the form of a robed female Egyptian peasant, a falaha, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies. Although Bartholdi submitted the plans to the Egyptian ruler at the time, the project was never commissioned. Although the design of the Egyptian statue and the Statue of Liberty are strikingly similar, Bartholdi denied any relation between the two. Some believe that Bartholdi's mother, Charlotte Bartholdi, was the model for the design. Others, however, believe that it was based entirely on the Egyptian design.
Whatever the origin of the design, Laboulaye thought it would be a good idea for Bartholdi to travel to America. France's Third Republic, which was patterned somewhat after the democratic government of the United States, had emerged after the Franco-Prussian War. Laboulaye thought that Bartholdi's visit could serve as propaganda for the people seeking the creation of a French republic. Laboulaye wanted Bartholdi to convince the American people to build a joint monument that would forever reflect the friendship between the two countries. He believed that such a monument would benefit both countries with far-reaching moral effect. Bartholdi then traveled to the United States, armed with letters of introduction from Laboulaye to some of America's most influential men, seeking support. While there, he selected Bedloe's Island, in the middle of New York Harbor, as the site for the monument. Among the influential Americans Bartholdi visited were President Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horace Greeley and Senator Charles Sumner. Everywhere he went, he carried a sketch of what the statue would look like in the harbor as well as a small model of the statue. Americans seemed receptive to the idea of a statue dedicated to “Liberty Enlightening the World,” which is the official title of the statue. However, no one was willing to make a commitment of money or a building site.
Back in France, Laboulaye was waiting to publicize the idea of the statue. He figured that there was no point in publicizing the idea until the Third Republic of France became a reality.
In 1874, with the establishment of the Third Republic, Laboulaye and Bartholdi agreed that it was time to reveal the “lady” to the people. Because the project would be extremely expensive, they decided that its cost should be shared. France would pay for the statue and America would pay for the pedestal and foundation. The French-American Union, a fund-raising committee, was formed. The Union had members from both nations. The French people raised money through elaborate auctions and theatrical events. The goal of Bartholdi was to complete the statue by July 4, 1876, in honor of America's centennial celebration. Money was slow coming in and while there was enough money to begin the project, the goal of completing it in time for America's anniversary was impossible. By 1875, the French people had raised $400,000 for the construction of the statue and work began.
Bartholdi selected Caget, Gauthier and Company as his workshop. The craftsmen there were experts in the field of repousse, a technique for creating sculptural forms by hammering sheet metal inside molds. Bartholdi had already turned down the ideas of building the statue from stone or bronze, due to the weight and cost of both materials. Repousse was the only method of construction that would allow such a monument to be shipped over seas. For the intricate work on the skeleton of the statue, Bartholdi chose Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who was already known for his brilliant work on railroad bridges. Eiffel would later achieve world-wide fame for his work on the Eiffel Tower.
Since it had already been decided that the statue would not be complete for America's anniversary, Bartholdi wanted to have the raised arm and torch completed for the International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. In order to meet the deadline, 20 men worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week. But even with overtime, the section was not finished in time for the opening of the fair. However, it did arrive in Philadelphia in the fall, before the closing of the fair.
Bartholdi was chosen as an official French representative to the Centennial Exhibition. While in America, he traveled to Bedloe's Island. During his visit, he remarked how appropriate it would be if the island were called Liberty Island. Eighty years later, in 1956, the name of Bedloe's Island was officially changed to Liberty Island.
In August of 1876, the 30-foot arm of Lady Liberty finally arrived in Philadelphia. For just 50 cents, a visitor could climb a steel ladder leading to the balcony around the torch. This unique experience created a great deal of public enthusiasm for the project since the statue would be the first statue where visitors could climb inside.
Returning to France and newly married, Bartholdi had a new goal. He would have the head of the statue, which he had begun calling “My Daughter Liberty”, finished for the opening of the Paris World's Fair in May, 1878. However, the head was not finished until June, when it was revealed to the people of France at the fair. Raising money to complete the statue, however, was still the number one problem in its construction. In 1877, an American Committee was organized to raise funds to build the pedestal. The people of France decided to have a lottery.
Because very few contributions for the construction of the statue were coming from France's elite, the idea of engaging the public's attention with a lottery proved to be a brilliant one. The prizes in the lottery were very substantial and well worth winning to anyone in France. They consisted of a silver plate set worth 20,000 francs (about $20,000), jewelry of pearls and gems, worth about 5,000 francs and two works by Bartholdi, a terra cotta copy of a statue honoring the military engineer Marquis Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, and a painting called The Wave. A collection of signed and numbered clay models entitled “Models of the Committee” were also assembled. These models carried the seal of the French-American Union. They were sold for 1,000 francs in France and $3,000 in America. The buyer could also have his or her name engraved in the clay before the statue was baked.
By the end of 1879, about 250,000 francs had been raised for the statue's construction. In 1881, Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to make the design for the pedestal. In October of that same year, the American ambassador to France, Levi P. Morton, drove the first rivet into the statue. This event attracted international attention. Sadly, in the winter of 1883, Edouard Laboulaye died. He was never able to see his dream become a reality.
In June of 1884, Lady Liberty was finally finished. She was dedicated by French Prime Minister Jules Ferry and by Ambassador Levi Morton. Bartholdi decided to celebrate by climbing the statue's steps. Few people accepted the challenge and joined him.
Throughout 1884, the statue remained in Paris, where she played hostess to thousands of French visitors. This remained until the spring of 1885 when she was dismantled for her log voyage to America. During this time, Bartholdi assumed that the pedestal was nearing completion in the United States. He was wrong.
Not much was happening for the fund-raising efforts in America. The American press remained critical of the project, mainly because of its cost. Americans could not understand why the pedestal could cost as much as the statue itself. Congress had already rejected a bill that would appropriate $100, 000 for the statue's base. The state of New York did approve a grant of $50,000 for the project. However, it was vetoed by the governor. People outside of New York remained apathetical. They decided that it was New York's statue and that New York could pay for it. Little money was coming in from New York's new self-made millionaires. The American half of the French-American Union, led by William M. Evarts, held the usual fund-raising events, but the public apathy for the project was just too strong. By 1884, only $182,491 had been collected, a small amount considering that fund-raising had been going on for years. Then, in 1885, Joseph Pulitzer came to the rescue.
Pulitzer was an immigrant from Hungary who had fought in the Civil War. By 1883, he owned two newspapers, the financial paper entitled The World, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He had recently learned of the fund-raising troubles in the United States. He saw this time as an opportunity to do three things: raise funds for the statue, increase his newspaper's circulation and to blast the rich people of New York for their selfishness.
Pulitzer set his own fund-raising goal at $100,000. In his newspaper, he taunted the rich, (thereby increasing its circulation among the working-class). He wrote editorials insisting that the statue was a monument that was not just for New York City, but for all of America.
One of Pulitzer's mot brilliant ideas was the promise to publish the names of every single contributor in the pages of his newspaper. Contributors could see their name in print no matter how small their contribution. He pointed out that the statue was paid for by the French masses. He appealed to the American people to match the enthusiasm of the French. He was also adamant on the idea that the statue was a gift from French as an entire people, not as a gift from the wealthy French to the wealthy Americans.
The tactics worked, as the circulation of The World increased by almost 50,000 copies. African-American newspapers joined in, citing that contributions would go toward a statue that, in part, celebrated the end of slavery. Donations of all sizes poured in. On June 15, 1885, it all paid off. The statue, inside of 214 wooden packing crates, arrived at Bedloe's Island. The goal of The World had been reached and slightly exceeded, thanks to more than 120,000 individual contributions.
Back in 1881, the American Committee had selected Richard Morris Hunt to design the pedestal on which the statue would stand. Hunt was a highly respected designer of expensive homes. Hunt submitted a number of drawings for the pedestal and one was chosen by the committee in 1884. The winning design was for an 89-foot high pedestal that would sit upon a concrete foundation appearing to grow up from within the 11-pointed star-shaped walls of Fort Wood. His fee for the process was $1,000, which he promptly donated back to the funding of the project.
The engineer in charge of the project was General Charles P. Stone. He was to oversee the construction of the foundation, the pedestal and the reassembly of the statue itself. The foundation alone required 24,000 tons of concrete. It was the largest single mass ever poured at that time. It measures 52 feet, 10 inches high. The pedestal rises 89 feet above the foundation. The Statue of Liberty began to rise over her new home in America in May, 1886. However, it would actually take six months to mount the statue to her base.
On October 25, 1886, Bartholdi and his wife, accompanied by Count Ferdinand-Marie de Lesseps, chairman of the French Committee, arrived in America. They were greeted by the American Committee and Joseph Pulitzer. At Bedloe's Island, surrounded by newspaper reporters, Bartholdi simply uttered these words, “The dream of my life is accomplished."
Unveiling day for the statue was actually three days later on October 28, 1886. The day was declared a public holiday and the weather was rainy and foggy. However, the weather could not darken the spirits of the more than one million people who gathered in the streets of New York City to watch more than 20,000 people pass by. The only section of the city that was actually working that day was Wall Street. When the parade passed by Wall Street, office workers in the buildings nearby began unreeling spools of ticker tape and throwing them out their windows. In just minutes, the air was white with all of the unrolled ticker tape. This spontaneous act gave birth to the New York City ticker tape parade.
In abundant attendance were dignitaries from both countries. President Grover Cleveland and members of his cabinet were in attendance as well as the governor of New York and his staff. The French ambassador was there along with the French Committee. Ironically, some of America's most wealthy families, who had refused to contribute to the statue financially, were now in attendance, jockeying for seats of prominence.
Out in the harbor, over 250 vessels of all shapes and sizes were waiting for the big moment. From the ships of the North Atlantic Squadron to the smallest dinghies, all of New York Harbor was sitting in anticipation. Alone atop the head of the statue stood Bartholdi. It was his job to pull a chord that would drop the French tri-colored veil that covered the face of the statue. A young boy on the ground was to signal Bartholdi with a handkerchief. The signal was supposed to come at the end of a speech being delivered by Senator William Evarts, who was known for being a little long-winded. In the middle of the speech, Senator Evarts stopped to take a breath. The boy mistakenly thought that the speech was over and therefore gave Bartholdi the signal. Bartholdi pulled the chord, revealing to the world the copper face of the statue for the first time. Bands played, guns were fired into the air, whistles blew and Senator Evarts sat down. When it was time for President Cleveland to speak, he said, "We will not forget that Liberty has made here her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."
Although today the statue is dwarfed by nearly all of the buildings in Manhattan, at the time of the dedication, Lady Liberty was the tallest building in New York City, reaching 305 feet.
From 1886 to 1902, the Statue of Liberty was maintained by the Lighthouse Board, which is an agency of the federal government, in conjunction with the Army and the American Committee. This was until 1901, when the War Department assumed responsibility. The War Department immediately made some much-needed repairs and improvements to the statue and the island.
Then, in 1903, without media attention or any kind of fanfare, one of the most significant changes was made to the statue. A bronze tablet was fastened to an interior wall of the pedestal. The plaque included a poem, which was written in 1883, that has become the credo for thousands of immigrants coming to America. The poem, entitled The New Colossus, was written by Emma Lazarus, to help raise funds for the construction of the statue.
In 1916, The World once again used its readers to raise funds for the statue. This time, the goal was to floodlight the statue at night. The paper's readers raised $30,000, enough to redesign the torch in glass.
Lady Liberty instantly became the most popular symbol of America. She became the female equivalent to Uncle Sam. In order to finance the U.S. participation in World War I, the U.S. authorized the use of the statue's image on rallying posters. The government raised about $15 billion, about half the cost of World War I.
President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty a national monument on October 15, 1924. Then, in 1933, the National Park Service (NPS) took over maintenance and administration of the statue.
In 1981, the French-American Committee for the Restoration of the Statue of Liberty was formed. The committee was formed in response to an internal diagnostic done by the NPS. The NPS determined that substantial work on the statue was needed. Next, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation was formed to raise funds and to oversee the restoration of the statue as well as Ellis Island. Once again, America utilized private donations. More than $295 million was collected, $86 million going to the statue's restoration.
On July 4, 1986, America threw a birthday party for Lady Liberty. President Ronald Reagan was in attendance and declared, "We are the keepers of the flame of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see." Later that day, President Reagan pressed a button that activated a laser beam that moved slowly across the harbor toward the statue. The light show slowly unveiled Lady Liberty and her new torch. The entire nation, along with 1.5 billion television viewers around the world, watched one of the most spectacular fireworks shows ever performed.
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